Work vehicles in the form of off-road machines can take many forms, such as agricultural tractors, combines, graders, construction backhoes, etc. In certain circumstances, it may be desirable to limit access to these work vehicles. For example, it may be desirable to restrict access to a particular work vehicle such that only certain operators who have been trained to use the work vehicle may operate the work vehicle.
It is known to incorporate “immobilizers” into a vehicle in order to control access to the vehicle. A typical immobilizer system includes a transponder incorporated in a mechanical key, e.g. a key fob, and an onboard verification unit. The onboard verification unit may immobilize or inhibit the starting of the engine of the vehicle unless a prescribed response is returned from the key fob, Many immobilizer systems have incorporated radio frequency identification (UM) technology to automatically communicate identifying information from an RFD tag in a key fob to an RFID tag reader. In this regard, the engine will only start for the prescribed RFID tag of an authorized operator. The onboard verification unit may include an immobilizer antenna module and various hardware to read the RFID tag in the key fob.
Given various design constrains and the directional nature of the immobilizer antenna, the possible places to mount the immobilizer antenna may be limited. For instance, issues pertaining to the interference of radio signals between the immobilizer antenna and the RFID tag in the key fob may arise if the immobilizer antenna is positioned too close to a metal component or is oriented incorrectly. To ensure the orientation of the immobilizer antenna and minimize the possibility of interference, a separate mounting bracket may need to be incorporated which increases manufacturing complexity and production costs.
What is needed in the art is a cost-effective mounting for an immobilizer antenna module on a work vehicle.